Honduras

By: Pooja S.

Physical/Geographical Information

The climate in Honduras is subtropical in lowlands and temperate in mountains. The terrain is mostly mountains in the interior and narrow coastal plains. The current issues in the environment are that the urban population is expanding because of this; people are logging and the clearing of land for agricultural purposes. Then this act then leads to deforestation. These activities are polluting the Lago de Yojoa which is the country's largest source of fresh water. The natural resources that are used are timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish and hydro power. There are frequent, but generally mild, earthquakes. Also tons of damaging hurricanes and floods along the Caribbean coast. For example, Hurricane Mitch destroyed much of the country and wiped out 70% of its crops, 80% of its transportation infrastructure, 33,000 homes and killed 5,000 people.

By: Alexis J.

Relevant statistical information

Honduras is a country in Mexico that has 112,090 square km of land and only 800 square km is irrigated. The people also need water to farm. They also need water for food for the animals so they can live like cattle and pigs. The land 112,090 square km of it has only 200 square km of it covered with water. The country has the water but it is dirty. That reminds of another fact about this country that every capital only gets 119 cubic meters of freshwater. The country has lots of hurricanes and floods which make the water unsafe and dirty. Hurricanes leave lots of people with unsafe drinking water. Somewhere near the east of the Caribbean coast there is a big part of the land that is uninhabited but there are lots of mosquitoes there which spread malaria and other diseases. There is water over there so if the mosquitoes were gone or if they were protected by mosquitoes they might be able to use desalination for the seawater. Also people can donate for mosquito nets or other protection.

By: Pooja S.

Description of water crisis

Hurricanes and floods damaged water. Example: Hurricane Mitch left 75% of people with unsafe drinking water. The Guacrirope Water Basin faces extreme drought. The water is unclean. The part of the coast that is inhabited by mosquitoes is not used for water but the water source there is from the oceans and salty and to get the water they could get infected by the mosquitoes. Diseases like malaria can kill you. Also the little water they have they use for clothes, dishes, bodies, and to make food or to drink. Most children do not have safe drinking water and die before age 6 from waterborne illness. If they don’t have much clean water they could get dehydrated or they could get diseases and die. It is not fair for a kid to die early. The water crisis is not fair.

By: Alexis J.

Water Solution Description

There is one big problem in Honduras with the water it is DIRTY!! The hurricanes and the floods also the earthquakes contribute to that problem. The dirt and dust from the roads or houses pollute the water and it becomes dirty. In Honduras they don’t have paved roads or siding on houses. The unclean drinking water is not good for the children health or for any ones health. Mosquitoes could infect them and that is harder to get rid of than unclean water that could be cleaned. There might be a possible solution for the problem. The solution I thought of was Purification. Purification is the best solution because Hurricanes and floods bring debris and dirt and dust which make the water dirty. Purification will help with that. The fact that the water is dirty will have an impact of helping the purification work in Honduras. The waters clean quality will improve and more people will have clean water to drink. I learned things we can do to help. We can start a club to raise money by doing plays that educate people about the water crisis in Honduras. We might also be able to book a radio station to broadcast the ideas we have not to only our school but to everybody in the area we broadcast to so more people are aware. We can also raise awareness that way. So then Honduras will have a brighter future for water.